Frank Santoro's on deck today, with another diary from the road of his Pompeii tour. This week, he visits the legendary Fantagraphics office in Seattle, and then heads up to Vancouver. Here's a sample:
Then we drove up I-5, got off at exit 171, made a couple turns...and thar she blows! Ye olde warship known as the Fantagraphics office. There is an "art installation" next door - and I mean that respectfully (seriously). There is this awesome older woman who has decked out her house and yard in a way that makes it a very satisfying "art experience" (below):
And then we have Rob Clough's review of the anthology Black Eye 2:
Black Eye 2 is an almost painfully personal statement by its editor, Ryan Standfest, despite the fact that very few of the pieces present in the book are his. The first volume of this anthology was outstanding in a number of ways, but it also felt flabby and self-indulgent at times. In some ways, that first volume was Standfest's personal manifesto regarding Black Humor and comics in general, and his desire to draw a line between EC horror comics, Black Humor, and today's cartoonists saw him tenuously stretch those connections. The second volume feels tighter and sharper. There's less of an editorial preoccupation on telling the reader what Black Humor is and more of an interest in actually showing them.
Elsewhere:
—Interviews. The latest guest on Inkstuds is Paul Pope on the occasion of his new Battling Boy. Bleeding Cool talks to Nobrow co-founder Alex Spiro after they opened up their New York office. Laura Hudson talks to Kate Beaton about her new fat pony project.
—News. PRI reports on Syrian cartoonist Akam Raslan, who was recently reported dead by other outlets. PRI says that his death is currently impossible to verify.
—Reviews & Comment. Probably the must-read for today is Charles Hatfield's very disappointed take on the bad history in PBS's Superheroes documentary. Mike Rhode also writes about the documentary, in three parts. Then, Rob Clough reviews Ulli Lust, Sean T. Collins reviews Cameron Hawkey's Nux Yorica, and Neil Cohn reviews Hannah Miodrag's Comics and Language.
—Finally. A newish site called 10 Rules for Drawing Comics collects cartooning codes from cartoonists like Mike Allred and Lucy Knisley.
